Basic — most of nights in tents or rooms with shared WC, some nights in comfortable rooms.

Standard — most of nights in comfortable rooms, some nights in tents or rooms with shared WC.

Upgraded — all nights in comfortable rooms.

Comfort

Minimum age of the participant of this trip

14 Days

Highlights

Unique expedition to the Extreme North

Visit of the northern most village of Yakutie - Tiksi

Passage by the true winter arctic roads

Aquaintance with the life of the polar people

Possibility to observe the arctic animals

Visit of the raindeer herders village - Topolinoye

Possibility to pass the frozen Laptev sea

Possibility to see the northern lights

Tour Overview

The Extreme
North, the arctic tundra, the polar night and the northern aurora… These ideas
are as far from the citizens, as the space exploration. The North doesn’t like the casual passers and
the Extreme North is too far from the common concept of tourism. However, the calm and tranquillity of these
places is reachable. The North cannot be called “extreme” as there is no
extremities!

In 2018
BaikalNature decided to open to its tourists a new opportunity – the unique
expedition to the northern most village of the Yakutia region – Tiksi. The word
“Tiksi” means “rendezvous, arrival”. The
real charm of this village is in its geographical position. The bay of the same
name is considered as the Yakutia sea gates, situated north of the Arctic
Circle in the Laptev Sea. The main peculiarity of the expedition is not the
destination, but the trip itself. Only having got over more then 2 500 km
by winter roads and frozen north rivers, we will arrive to this “bay of
rendezvous”. This bay is friendly only for those who dared to venture him physically
and morally.

The
expedition starts in Yakutsk. We will meet with arctic people and visit the Topolinoye village – the
village of the reindeer’s herders. Crossing the tundra and frozen rivers, we
can observe the wild arctic animals such as birds, polar fox, reindeer, wolves
and others.

The main part of the route passes to the North from the Polar circle and every day we will have possibility to observe the northern lights and make rare photos.

On the way
there are no hotels, museums, cafes or other touristic places. Our tour is not
about this… To try yourself in the face of full isolation, where you won’t find
roads, only directions to go. Our goal is to reach the place where the winter
ramp over 8 months a year.

Our team
and equipment ensure the security on the journey. There will be 2 off-road vehicles Toyota Land
Cruiser, that proved their reliability during our expeditions such as “Pole
of Cold” or "Baikal. 110th km". The vehicles will be followed from the satellite 24 hours a day.
Also all participants of the group should be in good physical shape, ready for
difficulties of the wild nature and not to have medical contraindications. We
will be moved away from the civilization by the distance and the weather
influence.

NB: This tour has no fixed group departure date. The price is available upon request.

Read more

Tour programme

Day 1

Aquaintance with Yakutsk

Yakutsk

Day 2

Khandyga and road of bones

Yakutsk — Khandyga

Day 3

Village of the reindeer herders

Khandyga — Topolinoye

Day 4

Crossing the Arctic Circle

Topolinoye — Batagay

Day 5

Day on the journey

Topolinoye — Batagay

Day 6

Life of an Arctic village

Batagay

Day 7

On the ice of the Yana river

Batagay — Saydy

Day 8

Arctic tundra

Saydy — Ust-Kuyga

Day 9

Polar lights

Ust-Kuyga — Severny

Day 10

Outlet to the Laptev sea

Severniy — Laptev sea

Day 11

Testing by the North

Laptev sea

Day 12

Bay of rendezvous

Laptev sea — Tiksi

Day 13

Main sea port of Yakutia

Tiksi

Day 14

Departure to Yakutsk

Tiksi — Yakustk

11:00

Arrival to Yakutsk

Transfer to the hotel. Free time.

13:00

Lunch — Not included

14:00

Free time

Possibility to go for a walk in the city centre or to visit the Mammoth Museum.

17:00

Meeting with the guides at the reception of the hotel

Discussion of the programme details, check-up of the equipment and of the timing.

Khandyga village earlier used to be one of the forced-labor camps known as Gulag. It was founded in 1939 as a base for construction of the road from Aldan river towards Oymyakon.

13:00

Lunch in the cafe en route — Not included

15:00

Continuation of the road

Arrival to the village in the evening. Accommodation in the homestay. Rest.

Overnight in the homestay

Photo of the day

Route

Yakutsk — Khandyga

Note

8 h4x4 (419km)

10:00

Departure to the Topolinoye village

the Topolinoye village is a part of the Tompo region. The main part of the region's population are Evenks. Their main activity is the nomad deer farming. Every year their is the festival "Reindeer herders day". If we have chance, we will make the acquaintance of the reindeer herders and their way of living.

13:00

Lunch in the cafe — Not included

14:00

Continuation of the road

Arrival to the Topolinoye village. Accommodation in the homestay.

Overnight in the homestay

Photo of the day

Route

Khandyga — Topolinoye

Note

5 h4x4 (150km)

09:00

Start of the itinerary

Today we start our way to the Batagay village. This day our expedition can be called "Arctic", as going by the Nelguese river we will cross the Arctic Circle.
The main part of the road passes by the frozen rivers and every bend of the river prepares for us special surprises - breaking-off and flooding ice.

14:00

Continuation of the road

Overnight in the car

Photo of the day

Route

Topolinoye — Batagay

Note

8 h4x4 (300km)

09:00

Start of the route

After the breakfast, we restart the route.

15:00

Continuation of the road

20:00

Arrival to Batagay village

According to the time of arrival, accommodation in the homestay or in the car for the night.

Overnight in the car

Photo of the day

Route

Topolinoye — Batagay

Note

8 h4x4 (300km)

10:00

Free time in Batagay

It's a reserve day in Batagayin case of the bed weather conditions en route.
We will visit the Batagay village and get to know to the way of living it's inhabitants.
Batagay is the administrative centre of the Verhoyansk region of Yakutie. Although the village is very grey, it's considered as a centre as there is a only functioning airport. The road Yana passes by this village and it's opened only in winter.
The sites of the village are the Village Hall, the biggest solar electric plant and the stele near the entrance to the village. The main point of interest are people - strong in spirit and body. There is a belief that the violent cold of the North made the people's hearts so hot, there you will fell their hospitality and cordiality even before you enter the village.

15:00

Free time

Overnight in the car / in the homestay

Photo of the day

Route

Batagay

08:00

Start of the route

Today we will continue our route till the village Saydy. En route, we will visit the ghost-village Strelka.
If the weather is fine, we will overcome this part of the road without stops. If not, we will have to slow down till 20 km/hour.

14:00

Continuation of the road

Arrival to Saydy village.
The Saydy village is very different from those villages that we have already visited. There is neither Internet, nor mobile communication. The main part of the population are yakuts. However, in spite of this remoteness and some kind of patriarchal character, there are a lot of children and it means the life goes on.

Overnight in the car / in the homestay

Photo of the day

Route

Batagay — Saydy

Note

10 h4x4 (190km)

09:00

Start of the route

We will go to the Ust-Kuyga village.
The main part of the route will go through the Arctic tundra. In fact, there are no roads in the conventional sense. There is only the direction that reveals by the traces of the vehicles that deliver cargoes to the North. The Arctic tundra is very ruthless, but there a lot of wild animals: polar fox, hare, wolf and fox.

14:00

Continuation of the route

Overnight in the car / in the homestay

Photo of the day

Route

Saydy — Ust-Kuyga

Note

8 h4x4 (110km)

09:00

Departure to the the Severniy village

Severniy is a ghost village with romantic name (from Russian: village of the Nord). There was a time when the village was populated by the gold-miners and the power engineering specialists. Every day there were more then 3 kg of the pure gold. When the factory was closed, the village was liquidated.

14:00

Continuation of the route

From this day we will start the territory of open space of the Arctic.
The difficult passage of some hundreds of kilometres will reward us with the possibility to observe one of the most beautiful phenomenon of nature. Only there, among the white open spaces we can really enjoy this breathtaking show.

Overnight in the car

Photo of the day

Route

Ust-Kuyga — Severny

Note

7 h4x4 (150km)

08:00

Route to the Hayir village

Hayir is a reindeer herders village. Near the local school, there is a ethnographic museum with the biggest collection of the animals' bones. The local tundra is also named "Mammuth cemetry", but this cemetery is hide by the snow during 11 months a year.

14:00

Passage to the Laptev sea

We will turn to the Omolay river, that falls into the Arctic ocean. We will go up the river for getting to the Laptev sea - the last and the most difficult part of our expedition.

Overnight in the car

Photo of the day

Route

Severniy — Laptev sea

Note

9 h4x4 (200km)

09:00

Passage by the Laptev sea

Our aim is to cross the Yana bay of the Laptev sea. Also there are about 100 km till Tiksi bay, we will spend 2 day en route.

15:00

Continuation of the route

The Arctic ice is very capricious and it prepares to us the ice-hummocks and breaks. Moreover, the visibility can be almost zero and we will move forward by touch in the direct sense of the word. it means that we take the shovels and prepare for the overnight on the ice.
If the sky is clear, we will admire one of the most beautiful sunsets of the life - white ice and fire-flecked sky.

Overnight in the car

Photo of the day

Route

Laptev sea

Note

4x4 (60km)

09:00

Route to the Tiksi bay

16:00

Arrival to Tiksi

Very momentous day ! We will get our destination - Tiksi. The word Tiksi means "rendezvous" and "arrival". So, Tiksi meet us for the rendezvous, we have arrived !
Accommodation in the hotel, rest.

Overnight in the hotel

Photo of the day

Route

Laptev sea — Tiksi

Note

4x4 (40km)

09:00

Breakfast in the hotel

10:00

Excursion in Tiksi

Tiksi is one of the most important sea ports of Yakutia. We will visit this port and know more about culture and history of the region. If the weather is fine, we will visit the museum of the Arctic fine art. For those who like the space mysteries, there is a geophysic observatory "Tiksi". If you are interested in the flora and fauna, you can visit the centre of the Ust-Lenskiy national reserve.

14:00

Passage by the Laptev sea ice

We will visit the Bikovsky island.
Although this island isn't populated, in winter there are some dozens of fish men. Also, we will visit the Brusnev island that is considered as the ships' cemetery. Every ship has it's own history -- from the territory development till the soviet expeditions

Overnight in the hotel

Photo of the day

Route

Tiksi

09:00

Breakfast in the hotel

12:00

Transfer to the airport

Flight to Yakutsk. End of the programme.

Photo of the day

Route

Tiksi — Yakustk

Discount system

> 6 months

> 8 months

> 10 months

Amount of discount (total payment)

5%

10%

20%

Amount of discount (deposit payment)

0

5%

10%

Discounts are applied to all services indicated on the official website of BaikalNature. Discounts aren't summarized with special offers and are not applied to individual tour programs.

The price is given is for a group of 2 people by car.
Total number of vehicles: 2.
Acommodation is planned to be in hotel "Polyarnaya zvezda" in yakutsk, in the hotel of Tiksi and in guest houses (the accommodation in guest houses is not included, to pay on site).
Tiksi is the boundary territory and it’s needed to have a special permission (preparation of the document takes about 60 days).
The itinerary of the expedition can be changed according to the road or weather conditions as well as unforeseen events.
The price includes the flight Tiksi - Yakutsk.
ATTENTION: as Tiksi is situated on the Extreme North, it's possible that the flights will be carry forward 1 or 2 days because of strong weather conditions.

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